1450: Mexico (The Aztecs)

Two fics set either during or after the First Doctor serial The Aztecs. Which is one of the most splendiferous historicals DW has ever done.

(The DisContinuity Guide, suggests 1450 as the most likely date for The Aztecs. I’ll take their word for it).

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Title: Toxcatl’s Shadow
Author: Calapine
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1428
Characters: First Doctor, Cameca (AU One/Cameca)
Setting / Era: The Aztec Empire

A beautifully reflective piece in which the First Doctor went back for Cameca before the end of his first regeneration.

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Title: The Garden
Author: bibliophile1887
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 740
Characters: First Doctor, Cameca (One/Cameca)
Setting / Era: The Aztec empire, 1400s.

Again, another reflective piece, this time a ficlet set mid-serial.

1969: England

Title: Alias Smith and Smith
Author: The Happy Potato
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 670
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Romana II
Setting / Era: England, 1960s (with a fleeting sort of appearance of the Beatles)

While not precisely having a lot of historical details, this is certainly a lot of fun. (And has to do with a bit of cliché-swapping).

1816: London

Title: Miss Tyler’s Gentleman Correspondent
Author: the_tenzo
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 3476
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler (Ten/Rose)
Setting / Era: 1816-1817

The Doctor leaves Rose with a match-making matron and travels about in Regency England. A Regency romance, nicely done. (Again, warning that it is Ten/Rose, if you don’t much like that sort of thing. But done neatly within the genre.)

480 BC: Greece

Title: The Spartans
Author: JJPOR
Rating: Teen
Word Count:
Characters: Second Doctor, Polly, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon
Setting / Era: 5th C BC Greece, Xerxes

A proper, glorious historical with everybody perfectly in character. There really isn’t enough Two, Ben and Polly left in the archives, but fan fiction like this makes up for a lot. And then, as a historical, it’s great, not just in the obvious way, but in dealing with Ben and Jamie’s now also historical attitudes to things. And everything involving Two and Polly is just wonderful. So, yes, go read – now!

1879: London

Title: The Founding
Author: vvj5
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 475
Characters: Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli
Setting / Era: Victorian London

I should definitely apologise for this – a short daft, fic featuring no canon characters by me. But it definitely counts as historical. Want to know how on earth Queen Victoria set up a secret government agency? Here’s my take…

Charley, Charley, Charley!

Two stories that have one thing in common – a pre-audios Charley. And given that Charley was born on the day the Titanic sank, that makes them historicals by default. Both are excellent character pieces, one short and sweet, the other much deeper.

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Title: Crazy Paving
Author: Ligia Elena
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 402
Characters: Jack Harkness, Charlotte Pollard
Setting / Era: England, 1919, 1920?

This is short and sweet and I like it very much. After the War, Jack pauses to entertain a certain young Miss Pollard.

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Title: Play Up and Play The Game
Author: doyle_sb4
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1815
Characters: Charlotte Pollard
Setting / Era: 1920s British boarding school

This is a wonderful character piece for Charlotte and her (otherwise unseen) elder sister with a pitch-perfect 1920s girls’ school story vibe and a little bit of heart-break thrown in.

336 BC: Macedonia

Title: Fashionable Chitons and History Lessons
Author: Lady_Yueh
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 2770
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler
Setting / Era: 4th C BC, Macedonia, Alexander the Great

This isn’t entirely a straight historical, either. Rose gets fed up with the Doctor’s critques of historical films. She lets him take her to meet the real Alexander the Great in exchange for his shutting up and letting her watch the film. It’s good fun, lively and does include actual historical content. (As a warning, it is a little Ten/Rose, but nothing to put a reader off the fic – squint and you’ll miss it).

2000s: Orkney Islands

Title: Royal Oak
Author: HADouglas
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 17,152 (10 chapters)
Characters: Tenth Doctor
Setting / Era: Okney Islands, Present day

While not strictly speaking a historical, this fic is a) a really good read and b) set in a specific place and time and the plot deals with a real-life historical incident, so this should appeal to those readers who like a good historical, which is one of the reasons I include it here. Enjoy!

1955: Pittsburgh

Title: Pittsburgh, October 1 1955
Author: AND
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1894
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones
Setting / Era: Pittsburgh, 1955, Dr Salk

Martha gets a bit of medical revision first hand.

1996: London

Title: 1996
Author: Bad_Dickens
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 1332
Characters: Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, Rose Tyler
Setting / Era: The Powell Estate, 1990s.

Maybe this shouldn’t count, but it is presented in the spirit of a historical, so… It’s a good fic, too, which always sways the argument.